FIX: Can not join or create homegroup on Windows 10

On Windows, a HomeGroup is a collection of computers that are on an internal home network and are configured so that they are able to share printers and files with one another. Creating a HomeGroup on your local network and then connecting all of the computers under your roof to that HomeGroup is the most ideal way for you to enable all the computers on your home network to be able to share files with each other. However, many computers running on various versions of the Windows Operating System are sometimes unable to join or create a HomeGroup of their local network.

This issue is usually (but not always) accompanied by an error message stating “Windows cannot set up a HomeGroup on this computer. Error code: 0x80630801” that shows up every time the user tries to join or create a HomeGroup via the affected computer. In most cases, the failure to start a specific Windows service by the name of the Peer Networking Grouping service is to blame for this issue. The Peer Networking Grouping service is a legit Windows service that has a lot to do with a Windows computer’s ability to join and create HomeGroups and how Windows computers on the same HomeGroup communicate with one another.

You can easily confirm whether or not your computer’s inability to join/create a HomeGroup is due to this specific problem by simply pressing the Windows Logo key + R to open a Run dialog, typing services.msc into the Run dialog, pressing Enter, locating the Peer Networking Grouping service in the list of your computer’s services and checking to see whether or not it is running. If the Peer Networking Grouping service is not running, you are affected by this issue. However, fear not as you can fix this problem pretty easily. If you are affected by this issue, here’s what you need to do in order to get rid of it and successfully restore your computer’s ability to join and/or create a HomeGroup:

If you’re using Windows 8 or above, simply right-click on the Start Menu to open the WinX Menu and click on Command Prompt (Admin). If you are using an older version of Windows, open the Start Menu, search for “cmd”, right-click on the search result named cmd and click on Run as administrator. This will launch an elevated Command Prompt.

1. Type the following into the elevated Command Prompt and press Enter:

   net stop p2pimsvc /y

2. Exit the elevated Command Prompt.
3. Press the Windows Logo key + E to launch the Windows File Explorer.
4. Navigate to the following directory:

   C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming\PeerNetworking

5. Locate and right-click on a file named idstore.sst.
6. Click on Delete in the contextual menu.
7. Confirm the action in the resulting popup.
8. Restart your computer. Check to see whether or not the problem has been resolved once your computer boots up.